White out

On a snowy Sunday morning, with the driveway and front walk still to be shoveled and plowed here at Festivus Blog HQ:

I’m sure a lot of you guys are back off the ledges, and some are still not convinced, and there should be much confusion still about your favorite team.

But I find this little stretch kind of fascinating, not so much because of Tortorella’s benchings and such, but because of his declaration that Glen Sather is aboard with the idea of no “entitlement” based on contract or experience for the veteran players, and much more grace for the young kids.

I find it interesting (and hard to believe) that Sather and his boss are OK with their $6.5 million defenseman not playing, and their $7.05 million captain centering the fourth line and killing penalties. Because that can’t be a good reflection on the guy who, you know, signed them to those contracts.

I find it interesting (and somewhat confusing) that they are going to live with the young guys’ mistakes, and yet Matt Gilroy, Bobby Sanguinetti and Ilkka Heikkinen are on and off the Hartford shuttle.

And I certainly don’t think Tortorella himself deserves anything close to straight A’s for his part this season, but if he’s true to his “entitlement” speech, than I’ll be very impressed.

Performance-wise, the two straight wins were hardly convincing, coming as they did against two lousy, struggling teams; the second one stolen by Henrik Lundqvist (who, Tortorella said after Saturday’s game, will start the last two games before Christmas break; the sked gets crazy starting Dec. 30, and he will need days off).

But wins are wins, and the Rangers have a bunch of win-able games coming up still.

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Here’s a big trivia question for my Festivus friends: What is the actual date of the Festivus holiday (invented by the prolific Frank Costanza)?

79 Comments

Lowell I think it’s very early to call Torts a complete bust. I think he is just now being given some room to flex some muscle in the locker room and shoot down players who have been “entitled” under Sather.

It’s a huge deal to scratch Redden for 2 games. It’s a huge deal to demote your captain to the 4th line. If you dig deep there have even been implications that he wanted to scratch more players, but administratively it’s just completely unrealistic.

Drury, the dopey eyed stooge, has suddenly started to seem a little more interested around the net. As pathetic as it is that our “CAPTAIN” needed this kind of motivation to get something going, you can’t deny that it seems Torts has knocked something loose for the time being. I’d love to see Drury on the 4th line for another month at least.

Redden seems pissed. GOOD. I think Redden will get another chance and then I think he will have some serious problems if he doesn’t start producing.

and Kotalik, well it’s ridiculous that a $3M player could seem so inconsequential, but when compared to the other three Today Sponges we have absorbing up our salary cap, Kotalik doesn’t even realy concern me at this point. But that is more a testament to how flat out disappointing the big time money guys have been.

Yeah. If Torts holds true to his word about all this it will be very impressive.

I agree… it sounds like he wanted to do this earlier and had to be cleared by Sather to do so. Understandable given that you’re right Carp… it puts the finger of blame squarely on Sather and his horrific FA signings.

Not convincing wins by any means. By the new year we’ll know for sure what kind of shape this team is in.

I’d have to say that they did outplayed the Flyers for most parts of the first two periods. Flyers came out desperate in the third and Hank stole the show.

Sending Sanguinetti and Haikinnen to Hartford has nothig to do with their performance, but it’s because of the NHL’s eight-day holiday roster freeze. They can both be recalled back for Carolina game. That is if the Rangers ever get there.

The thing about the latest entitlement speech is that it was awfully familiar – pretty much the same rhetoric he spouted when he (mistakenly) benched Avery in the Washington series. Should he live up to it this time, wonderful. Do I think he will? Not at all. Drury’s history in NY to date is that games like these last two are an aberration, nothing more. When he goes back to missing the net constantly, going offsides, making passes that put his linemates in bad spots, looking lost, etc., we’ll see how Torts’ new/old mandate holds up.

I call BS on Tortorella making like all of a sudden he’s stopping entitlement ice. Him & his boss are full of it. They are blame gamers. Nothing is their fault. If it were true, Gilroy, Sang, & Hein would be part of a 7 D, and Redden & Kotalik would continue to sit, get waived , or traded. I’m from Missouri & the NYR are mostly a misery……. SHOW ME……..instead of making up excuses……..

There’s clearly a long way to go before we can say the team is playing really well or that the coach/GM are living up to their threats, but I thought yesterday was a big improvement (admittedly against a mess of a Flyers team).

Not quite sure why so many people have tagged it as Lundqvist stealing the game. Yes, he was great and stood up to a lot of 3rd period pressure, but I thought the Rangers were clearly the better team for 40 minutes.

Hockey wise, it’s a mistake to think that Hank needs games off to rest. He thrives on playing a lot and has stated as much. He becomes much sharper with constant work as I think we are starting to see. Hopefully Torts recognizes this as well. I say play him as many games as possible.

Btw, has anyone noticed that Flyers were a little timid? They looked like they didn’t want to take a penalty. Not sure why, but I think it was a combinaton of their coach being in a foul mood, them not being too confident in their goalie and Rangers’ PP being hot lately. They also didn’t dress Cote.

No entitlement means Redden gets Prucha-ed for a couple of games, Drury gets OrrBettsSjoos-ed for a week or two.
Therefore Sather and Coach T are on the same page and doing exactly what they should. The fact that the Redden and Drury contracts prevented us from adding Heatley this year and Kovalchuk next year, and that they have their spots on the team where they are, shows integrity and committment to the no entitlement philosophy!

Keep it rolling Blueshirts! Lets go Rangers.

I will be at the game Wednesday night. If you are going to be there, we can try to meet again. (didn’t work out last time)

Orr, if it was me, I’d have given ya a bunch of the freshly baked cookies and mini cupcakes i just made, AND have given you a gift card to gamestop or something! Ya did a good deed though, that good karma will come back on ya!!

orr- u have to make known your terms of payment before takin on an endeavour which is physically demanding like shoveling snow. for gods sake i pulled my back out for 2 weeks because i got drunk and tried shoveling my cars out at 2 am. it was the blizzard here a few weeks ago. im not sayin its killer work, but cake?? dude, i wouldve judo chopped granny in her neck, then got gramps in a rear naked choke. cake? cake?????? !!! i mightve settled for pot brownies but sponge cake? were talkin about cake man, cake!!! i mean, its cake!!! not even pie, cake!!! were talkin about cake man!!! lol, cake

orr- im def. gettin ps3 in jan. its confirmed. i gotta gamestop right near my house, and im good friends with the guy who runs it. hes got both 360 and ps3 and he told me the online is cheaper for ps and its a more reliable system. even though i do love teh x box and the graphics are little better, im sick of it breakin on me. im not interested in bluray capability but if the thing has longevity and not carp out on me like xbox(im on my 3rd since 06), i’ll be happy. and i wanna see how good u are at nhl. save me a spot in your league. or make a new one up ok. im really good at onetimers and toedrag wristers over the glove!! lol im sure everybody is, thats the easiest wat to score besies the stupid wraparound that either goes in everytime or if u pull it to early, some stupid glitch happens and it goes off your stick and straight back into your zone!! i know youve seen that stupid one before

Good sh*t Mike. Get NHL a-sap. Don’t worry aboot the league, nobody even fuggin plays, lol. I had to get rid of a couple of people.

We can play some side games, but what ive been doing lately is playing Club hockey with some people on here, it’s Online Team Play. It’s really fun. Gotta get used to it first, so it can start out really frustrating, but it gets really fun, and it’s like you’re playing an actual game, especially since you’re playing as yourself.

And i agree, Sienna Miller is babish, but i liked the red head from that movie. Rachel Nichols her name be, im not sure.

But Fox is just do damn hot, she cliched that number 1 spot for a loooong time.

Wow, an ugly xmas sweater party on friday night, work party on sat night, ilkka sent down (I still think slats might be working an early year trade like he did with aves when he first acquired him), orr getting paid wiht a cake?!?!?!

No word on mako’s mum??

Now you frakking guys are making me rethink my 360…A-HOLES!!!

We still need a couple of crease clearing hard hitting physical d men!!!!!

I’m still not enthused with this team’s make up and quite honestly I think it sucks voros hasn’t played in quite a while!!!

Lol. I know, that’s what everyones saying. Ill have to figure out something for the future. It seemed like an awesome idea at the time, but i didn’t think everyone was gonna have a problem versing one another. Two people said that they couldn’t even start their match cause the connection would end before the drop of the puck. ‘

EA has a lot of work to do for the next game. They need to add a fantasy draft to the league.

Philly broke a 13 year snow record for December, so I stayed at my friends place after the game. I wanted to post a mini analysis of what I saw yesterday when I was at the game:

1.) Still amazes me when Philly fans are dumbfounded that a New York sports fan can live in their city.

2.) place was empty. maybe 8,000 tops. good number of ranger fans. I met several people who took the train from NYC and even Connecticut to see the game. Good job boneheads!

3.) Best part of the night was during the 2nd period when a huge laugh came up from the crowd. Reason? Quoting the announcer: “Don’t feel like driving through the snow? Well stay here in the arena for $30 bucks and stay to watch the 76ers’ game!” I think you would have to pay people $30 bucks to stay for a 76ers game.

4.) The pronger goal was terrible. I was sitting behind the net and just watched the puck come straight at me. No screen either. Lundqvist just missed it. However, right after the goal you can see Lundqvist went into his “F the world” mode and I was confident in telling my friend that was the last goal he was going to give up tonight.

5.) Marc Staal is worth every penny we pay him. Yes, we should not over pay him, but the guy is a rock star defenseman. Yes, he makes mistakes, but most NHL goals happen because d-men make mistakes. Last night he was solid. Everytime the puck was in our end, there was marc staal. He Calmly gathered the puck and made a smart play out of the zone.

6.) I hate to say it, but if Drury plays 4th line time and plays the penalty kill, so be it. He is a reason we also won that game. He just did so much off the puck defensively that he really did have a huge impact on many game defining plays.

7.) Sean Avery knows when to say when. Pretty much every Flyer went up to him behind the play and gave him a shot or two and many times they would skate to the rangers bench during a line change trying to antagonize him, but he continued to play. I like him playing smart like that.

8.) Scott Hartnell skates like he eats a bag of Doritos before every game. How can a player be so bad after a good year? Also, Jeff Carter skates around like he doesn’t know what is happening. I think it’s safe to say that the Flyers are a bigger disappointment than the Rangers.

Was at the game yesterday for my birthday.. was a good game top go watch Lundy was a brick wall which as previously stated the Philly fans hated… And for all the garbage all the obnoxious Philly fans were shooting at me and my companions at the game yesterday 2 things came to mind..they have a pretty sweet winless streak going…. and oh yeah…. We still won the world series!

I agree with Salty’s post that it’s too early to call Tortorella a bust. Maybe his hands were tied by the GM on the whole “accountability” issue, maybe they weren’t – we’ll never know.

What I will call bullsh*t on with Tortorella is all the rhetoric about conditioning, players being out of shape, and the whole training camp workout routine. That was entirely under his control and nothing I’ve seen of the players on the team this year and last makes me think that any are in better shape now or that it’s winning the team any games.

jjp- it maybe bs about conditioning, but the schedule is much more condensed and it has to be taken into account that torts running a 3 line bench and the crazy schedule is having an effect. they still might not be as conditioned as we all thought though

lol the first 8 games showed the amazing conditioning…. hard to say.. i wonder how many players not only on the Rangers but around the league arent giving their all on every shift or a certain times for the game because of the schedule and the idea of playing for their country…..

ilb, well of course it’s not a big deal for you, given your “persuaion” :)….my mom’s bday is the 28th…was only bad for her when the festivus of lights calendar overlapped….still, an early summer bday rocks ….

hey guys, got an email from Mako earlier, he’s gonna be stopping by soon! Gotta go put some frosting on andes candies german chocolate cake cupcakes and make some chocolate chip cookies. Check in with yas soon!

Mine’s on the 26th and I don’t celebrate Christmas so everytime someone finds out my bday they always say “AWW Christmas baby” and then I have to tell them I don’t celebrate Christmas and they get disappointed.

Let’s hope Gilroy starts playing amazing after beintg sent down, and imagine Redden actually starts playing good i know its a lot to ask for but imagine… and also guys im trying to win a scholarship and i just need people to vote for me, so if you could just go to this website (copy and paste)

and if you could just click the “vote for this picture” i would really appreciate it because im only 100 votes away from first and i could win 500 dollars please help if you could guys.LETS GO RANGERS!!!